Update: Revolution for Liberty in Ukraine

           After a violent crackdown on anti-government protests, the Ukrainian Parliament has removed the authoritarian President of Ukraine, who had fled the capital, from power and placed the Speaker, who had been part of the opposition, in charge of an interim government until new parliamentary elections can be held.

            The President, who had been ousted in the 2004 Orange Revolution and later returned to power, chose to accept a Russian loan package for the indebted Ukrainian government instead of a trade deal with the European Union, thereby signifying closer ties with Russia over integration with Western Europe.  See my post from December of 2013, Foreign Digest: Ukraine, Poland, Central African Republic, Italy, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2013/12/foreign-digest-ukraine-poland-central.html.  Russia controls the natural gas pipelines that lead into Ukraine and offered to continue the flow, which served as a reminder that it could cut it off, as it had before.  The opposition suspected a deal between Russia and the Ukrainian President that benefited him personally, a theory for which the evidence was bolstered by the discovery over the weekend of his lavish palace at the expense of the poor people of Ukraine.  Their concern about Russia was also based on the large presence of Russians in the eastern part of the former Soviet republic and the possibility that Russia would try to occupy militarily or even annex eastern Ukraine.  The opposition also objected to the imprisonment on politically-motivated charges of the former President who had led Ukraine after the Orange Revolution, among other human rights abuses; she has since been freed, along with many of the protesters who had been detained.  Their cause was emboldened further by the harsh measures taken by the Ukrainian government against peaceful protesters.  In short, Ukraine had become, once again, similar to Russia and Venezuela. 

I had called earlier this month in my post on the Winter Olympics in Russia for the Free World, led by the United States, to stand more strongly for the independence, territorial integrity and freedom of the former Soviet republics and with the people in the streets of Ukraine, which it has. 

The destiny of Ukraine is now once again in the hands of the Ukrainian people.  They must return to representative government quickly through parliamentary elections and, through their chosen representatives in Parliament, guarantee the liberty of all Ukrainians, whether they speak Ukrainian or Russian.  The Ukrainian people can then decide, free of intimidation or bribery, their relations with Russia and Western Europe, which need not be mutually exclusive, while Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity must be respected by all foreign states.  I congratulate the Ukrainian people on their revolution and wish them success in achieving the goal of liberty and keeping it.